1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring a printed circuit board, more particularly, to an apparatus for transferring a printed circuit board in which printed circuit boards having various sizes can be transferred by using one transfer apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
A large number of electronic components electrically connected with each other are mounted on a surface of a printed circuit board. The mounting of the electronic components is performed by a surface mounting apparatus, and the mounting method of the electronic components comprises the steps of: supplying a printed circuit board (hereinafter, referred to a xe2x80x9cboardxe2x80x9d); transferring the supplied board; mounting the electronic components on the board; and discharging the board mounted the electronic component.
As shown in FIG. 1, the mounting apparatus of electronic components according to a conventional art comprises: a plurality of conveyors C1, C2 and C3 arranged in a line for transferring the board P; an electronic component feeding device 1 installed to at least one side of the conveyor C2 being mounted the electronic component among the plurality of conveyors C1, C2 and C3 and loaded the electronic component 2; mounting heads 3 and 3xe2x80x2 for mounting the electronic component 2 to the board P by picking the electronic component 2 from the electronic component feeding device 1; and a support means (not shown) for supporting the board transferred from a lower side of the mounting area of the electronic component to the mounting area.
The conveyors C1, C2 and C3 have belts B1, B2 and B3 being mounted on both sides thereof at regular intervals.
A first conveyor C1 among the conveyors C1, C2 and C3 is a charge buffer conveyor for charging the board, a third conveyor C3 positioned at the other side is a discharge buffer conveyor for discharging the board mounted the electronic components, and a second conveyor C2 between the first and third buffer conveyors is a mounting conveyor for mounting the electronic component. The respective conveyors C1, C2 and C3 are operated independently by a driving means (not shown), respectively.
The heads 3 and 3xe2x80x2 are moved at X and Y shafts by frames of X and Y shafts and suck the electronic component in the electronic component feeding device 1 by vacuum, so that the electronic component is mounted to the board.
At this time, when the first and second mounting heads 3 and 3xe2x80x2 perform the mounting work simultaneously, since an interruption between the mounting heads may be occurred, the first and second mounting heads perform the mounting work sequentially, not simultaneously. The board P completed the mounting work of the electronic components is carried out by the third conveyor C3.
However, according to the electronic component mounting method of the conventional art, there are several disadvantages as follows.
Since the width of the conveyor, a transfer apparatus of the board P, can not be controlled and a working area also can not be moved, the boards having widths of various sizes can not be transferred by one conveyor. Accordingly, since plural conveyors matching to the width of each board are required, the cost for purchasing and maintaining the board is needed much and a large quantity of manpower are needed.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for transferring a printed circuit board in which printed circuit boards having various widths can be transferred safely by using one transfer apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for transferring a printed circuit board in which the printed circuit board can be transferred easily to a desired working area.
In one aspect of the present invention, to achieve the above-described objects of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for transferring a printed circuit board comprising: a base plate; a plurality of linear motion guides installed to both sides of the base plate with a constant distance; first and second linear motion blocks installed slidably to the linear motion guides; a conveyor means reached in good condition on frames of the first and second motion blocks and having first and second conveyors for moving/supporting the printed circuit board; driving means for driving the first and second conveyors, respectively; a width direction transfer means of the conveyor means comprising: servo motors; moving blocks connected to the servo motors and fixed to a lower portion of the conveyor frame; fixing blocks installed to both sides of the base plate and connected to the moving blocks; and ball screws for interconnecting the moving blocks and the fixing blocks.